Sunday, 31 July 2016

He was born in Odessa. His father was a hatter and had a small shop
where he sold hats that he made himself.
Ignoring his poverty, he sent his son to study in the Odessa Commercial
School. Mikhl early on joined the
revolutionary movement and in 1877-1878 was one of the twenty-eight members of
the first Odessa “kruzshok” (circle) which established an illegal school to
teach Jewish youngsters Russian and socialism.
In 1880 he was already being watched by the police, and two years later,
for political reasons, he made his way to the United States where he arrived on
August 20, 1882 at the head of the Odessa group of “Am Olam” (Eternal people)
[groups aimed at establishing agricultural colonies in the United States]; en
route they were joined by the second section of the Vilna “Am Olam” group with
Avrom Kaspe at the head. He worked for
years in New York, stitching shirts for $4-$5 each week, and he was one of the
main organizers (with Morris Hilkovitsh [Hilkvit], Louis Miller, and other
socialist pioneers who were also working in the trade at that time) of the
union of shirtmakers (one of the very first Jewish trade unions in
America). Right after arriving in New
York, he took a prominent position among the pioneers in the Jewish socialist
movement in America, and his name was linked with virtually all efforts and
experiments (political, trade union, culturally enlightened, and literary) of
that movement over the course of the 1880s and 1890s. Already in 1882 he joined the “Propaganda
Association” (which the student F. Mirovitsh had only just founded and for
which Abraham Cahan was the principal speaker); and that year he was a
cofounder of the “Self-Study Association” which, just like the “Propaganda
Association,” only existed for a short time, later of the “Russian Workers’
Association,” the “Russian Labor Lyceum,” and the “Russian Progressive
Association.” He was one of the most
beloved and influential propagandists (in Russian) of the “Jewish Workers’
Association” (founded in April 1885, just after the collapse of its
predecessor, the “Russian Jewish Workers’ Association”), which lasted until the
latter half of 1887 and played a significant political role at that time. Among the Jewish socialists and the “Am Olam”
people, Zametkin was known as a social democrat, but his views were, like other
socialists of that time, rather more hazy, and in 1886 he was part of the
“Committee of Eleven” that the socialist “Jewish Workers’ Association”
appointed to lead agitation for the candidacy of Henry George (author of Progress and Poverty, a reformer, but
not a socialist) for the position of mayor of New York City; Zametkin later
described this in his article, “Undzer ershter kompromis” (Our first
compromise), Tsayt-gayst (Spirit of
the times) in New York (August 31, 1906).
Also for a short time he belonged to the anarchist group “Pyonire
der frayhayt” (Pioneers of freedom), founded in 1886. Bit by bit, however, his ideological views
became clearer and more defined. That
same year he was one of those who influenced the “Jewish Workers’ Association” in
its decision to join the Socialist Labor Party (S.L.P.) in America, and at the
end of 1887—just after the “Jewish Workers’ Association” abolished itself—he
joined the group of Jewish socialists who organized within the S.L.P. a “Jewish
Branch” of the party (Branch #8).
Furthermore, in 1888 he was one of those who separated from the branch
and founded “Branch #17” for the Russian-speaking Jewish socialists in the
S.L.P.; Zametkin spoke and wrote throughout in Russian, only switching to
Yiddish in 1892. Following the
initiative of Branches #8 and #17, in October 1889, the United Hebrew Trades
was founded, and he was one of the most beloved and successful propagandists in
founding new unions among Jewish laborers, in New York as well as in other
cities (Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston).
In December 1889 at the joint conference of Jewish anarchists and social
democrats, with the goal of publishing together an impartial workers’ newspaper
in New York (at the historic convention which gave the final push to the
founding of two solid workers’ newspaper), Zametkin was a delegate from the
Chicago “Continued Education Association” where he participated with the
anarchists. When the social democrats
deserted the conference on the basis of a decision to publish their own
newspaper, he left with the social democrats, and nine weeks later (March 1890)
there appeared the social democratic weekly Di
arbayter tsaytung (The workers’ newspaper); Zametkin became one of its main
leaders and remained as such until 1902 when the newspaper ceased
publication. He was initially associated
with the radical wing of the newspaper and for many years wrote on serious
economic and socio-political issues—all illuminated from a Marxist standpoint. He also wrote semi-fictional stories and
allegories which always carried a socialist propagandistic character—one of
them, entitled “Un dan?” (And, then?), was published in Tsukunft (Future) in New York in 1894. He published current events articles as well
in the daily Dos abend-blat (The
evening newspaper) which the Jewish social democrats, together with the United
Hebrew Trades, published from 1894 until 1902, and in Zuntog abend-blat (Sunday evening newspaper) which was published in
1896. Zametkin also spoke and wrote on
literature. He was almost the best
Yiddish speakers on literature—mainly on Russian literature—in the early 1890s,
but the literary topics as well served only as a canvas to express social
democratic propaganda.

At the time of the rift in the
S.L.P. in January 1897, he left with the opposition (Ab. Cahan, Louis Miller,
Morris Wintshevsky, and others), and when it was decided to publish the Forverts (Forward) (first issue
appearing April 22, 1897), he and Cahan traveled across the country to collect
money for the newspaper. He later became
Cahan’s right-hand man at the newspaper, and, when Cahan resigned several
months later from his editorial post, Zametkin assumed this position and over
the years 1900-1901 he shared the editor’s chair with Louis Miller. In those years, he wrote a great deal for the
newspaper, and he remained a regular contributor for decades afterward. He was also editor of the weekly Der sotsyal-demokrat (The social
democrat), which the “Kangaroos” (members of the second opposition who split
off from the S.L.P. in 1899) began to publish in New York on October 7,
1900. In searching for a national
expression for the Jewish socialist movement in America, which transpired among
the ranks of the members—this time from the Socialist Party (S.P., led by
Eugene Debs) over the course of the first decade of the twentieth
century—Zametkin took up a sharply negative position which he expressed in his
writing for Forverts, Tsayt-gayst (a weekly put out by the Forverts), Tsukunft, and elsewhere.
When a debate began (following the founding of the “Jewish Agitation
Bureau” in 1905) over the need for a national conference of Jewish socialists,
which would create a purely Jewish socialist federation, he ridiculed (in a
long article in Tsayt-gayst, January
25 and February 1, 1907) the “solitariness” which is no more than “an illness
which can and must be cured,” because “only what is polluted must be kept in
quarantine, only lepers are kept outside the camp,” while the healthy ones do
not separate themselves from anyone.
Zametkin’s socialism, in his speech and his writing, was cosmopolitan,
although over the course of fifty years he spoke only to Jewish workers. He also did translations from Russian,
English, and French which appeared in various publications. Among his books: A Russian Shylock, a play in four acts (New York, 1906), 135 pp.; a
translation of Émile Zola’s La Bête
humane (The human beast) as Di
tsveyfisike khaye (The biped animal), together with his wife, the writer
Adela Kiyen (New York: Forverts Publ., 1911), 554 pp.; translation of Allan L.
Benson’s Sotsyalizmus un zayn rikhtige
badaytung (Socialism and its proper meaning [original: Socialism Made Plain]) (New York: Forverts Publ., 1917), part 1,
133 pp., part 2, 128 pp.; N. Chernishevski’s novel, Vos tut men? (What is to be done? [original: Chto delat’]), together with Adela Kiyen (New York: Literarisher
Publ., 1917), part 1, 255 pp., part 2, 288 pp.—the name of the translator is
not indicated in the book, but Zalmen Reyzen deduced as much in his Leksikon (in the biographies for M.
Zametkin and Adela Kiyen).

He was active as a speaker,
lecturer, and writer until 1925, when a severe illness over a long period of
time interrupted his activities. He was
so weak the last ten years of his life that he could scarcely move. He was living in the Bialystoker Home for the
Aged on East Broadway. Lonely and
desolate (his wife predeceased him), he died on March 7, 1935. He remains were cremated—one day later. His daughter is the American Anglophone
writer Laura Z. Hobson.

He was born in a village near
Terlitsa, Kiev district, Ukraine, to an impoverished timber merchant. He was orphaned in his youth on his mother’s
side and raised by his grandfather in Terlitsa.
Afterward when his father, Avrom-Leyb Pesok, settled in Nikolaev and
opened a religious elementary school there, Shmuel-Mortkhe moved there. Until age thirteen he studied at his father’s
religious elementary school and in a Russian public school, later becoming a
sign painter. In 1906 he moved to Canada,
and from there in 1909 to the United States where he settled in Chicago. For a time he worked as a sign painter, and
later he worked as a secretary in a Jewish school. He debuted in print (under the name Shmuel
Pesok) in Der groyser kundes (The
great prankster) in New York, with a memoirist description of Jewish Montreal
entitled “Montreoler notitsn” (Notes on Montreal). From the time on, he published humorous
sketches, skits, articles, and reviews of Yiddish performances and concerts, as
well as children’s stories, puzzles, children’s poems, and features in: Der groyser kundes, Kibitser (Joker), Forverts
(Forward) in New York and Detroit, and other serials. In 1912 he became an internal contributor
(and for a time editorial secretary) to the daily Yidisher kuryer (Jewish courier) in Chicago—later known as Kuryer (Courier), a weekly—in which he
also ran a column “Harts tsu harts” (Heart to heart). From June 1919 (until the final issue of this
publication in 1952), he was he was an internal contributor and assistant
editor of Shikager forverts (Chicago
forward), in which aside from the news, articles, and theater reviews, he also
published the humorous series “Bilder un stsenkes” (Images and scenes). He also contributed to: Der idisher rekord (The Jewish record) in St. Louis; the journal Shikago (Chicago); Nikolayever yorbikher (Nikolaev annuals) (1940, 1950); Idisher shriftzetser (Jewish typographer)
(New York, 1926, 1936); and other trade journals and publications. He was editor of Kinder-baylage tsum yidishn rekord (Children’s supplement to Idisher rekord) (Chicago,
1913-1915). From 1955 he has been living
in Chicago.

He was born in Warsaw, Poland, into
a rabbinic family. He moved to the
United States in 1924, graduated from rabbinic seminary, and received
ordination into the rabbinate. In 1932
he graduated from university in Cleveland.
For a time he served as rabbi there and from 1948 he was rabbi in
Montreal. He was chairman of Mizraḥi in Canada and a member
of the executive of World Mizraḥi
and of the General Zionist Organization.
He also chaired the Montreal rabbinate.
From 1932 he contributed to the Yiddish, Hebrew, and English-language
Jewish press in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. He placed work in: Keneder odler (Canadian Eagle) and the monthly Di mizrakhi-shtime (The voice of Mizraḥi), of which he was also editor—both in Montreal; Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal) in New
York; Unzer veg (Our way) in Paris; Hatsofe (The spectator) in Tel Aviv; and
other serials. He was also editor of Tora veavoda (Torah and belief) in
Cleveland. He was last living in
Montreal.

He was born in Odessa, southern
Russia, into a well-to-do family. At age
twelve he entered the Odessa school of commerce, while simultaneously studying
Hebrew with Perets Smolenskin (who lived right near the Zamoshtshins and even
dedicated a poem to his student). At age
seventeen he left to study architecture at the Berlin Polytechnicum, but
because of his father’s declining business, he interrupted his studies in 1870 and
returned to Odessa, where he turned to commerce and initially gave up on
studying literature. He began writing in
Hebrew in 1868. He published poems,
essays, and correspondence pieces in: Hamelits
(The advocate), Hamagid (The
preacher), Hakarmel (The garden-land),
Hatsfira (The siren), Haboker-or (Good morning), Haor (The light), and other Hebrew
publications; but his main activity developed in Yiddish in which he published
poetry, plays, stories, and articles in: Kol-mevaser
(Herald), Varshoyer yudishe tsaytung
(Warsaw Jewish newspaper), Yudishes
folksblat (Jewish people’s newspaper), Spektor’s Hoyzfraynd (House friend), and Familyen-fraynd
(Family friend)—in the last of these, he excelled with his “Bilder fun lebn”
(Images of life); in Spektor’s Varshoyer
yudisher familyen-kalendar (Warsaw Jewish family calendar) (1893) and Lamtern (Lantern) (Warsaw, 1894); Sholem-Aleykhem’s
Yudishe folks-biblyotek (Jewish
people’s library)—a rhymed comedy in one act entitled Nor a doktor (Only a doctor); A. Goldfaden’s Yisroelik; Der yudisher veker
(The Jewish alarm) (Odessa, 1887)—a long poem entitled “Shma yisroel” (Hear,
Israel); Kleyne yudishe biblyotek
(Little Jewish library) (Odessa, 1888); Der
kleyne veker (The little alarm) (Odessa, 1890); Rozenblum’s Der folks-fraynd (The friend of the
people) (Odessa, 1894); Der yud (The
Jew) (Cracow-Warsaw, 1899); Minikes yontef
bleter ([Khonen] Minikes’s holiday sheets) (New York). In Odessa, he became a private lawyer and published
a pamphlet entitled: Di naye zakones fun
pasportn far dvoryanes, tshinovnikes, potshotni-grazhdanes, kuptses,
meshtshanes, bale-melokhes, krestyanes un yidn (The new laws on passports
for nobles, officials, honored citizens, merchants, petty bourgeois, craftsmen,
peasants, and Jews), with supplements translated from no official publications
(Odessa, 1895), 48 pp. He also
translated into Yiddish Y. L. Gordon’s Bimetsulot
yam (In the waves of the sea) and adapted in Yiddish A. B. Gotlober’s play
(in one act and two scenes) Der medalyon
(The medallion). “Without a doubt,”
wrote Y. Shatski, “Zamoshtshin was a gifted poet…. Linguistically very interesting, his language
had considerable folkish charm.” His
work was also included in Der arbeter in
der yidisher literatur,fargesene
lider (The worker in Yiddish literature, forgotten poems) (Moscow, 1939). He died in Vienna, almost completely
forgotten.

Friday, 29 July 2016

He was born in Volkovisk (Wołkowysk), Grodno region, at the time in Russia. He studied in religious primary school and
yeshivas. He married at an early age and
became a businessman. He was one of the
first “Ḥoveve Tsiyon” (Lovers of Zion)
and followers of the Jewish Enlightenment in the city. He published poetry and essays on national
Jewish themes and fictional depictions and fantasies in: Hatsfira (The siren) in Warsaw; Hamelits
(The advocate) in Odessa; and Volkovisker
shtime (Voice of Wołkowysk) and Volkovisker
lebn (Wołkowysk life), among others. In book form: Der eyntsiger veg, dialog tsvishn man un froy vegn ashires un dales,
luksus un basheydn (The only way, dialogue between man and wife on wealth
and poverty, luxury and modesty) (Vilna, 1932), 119 pp. Written in a modern Yiddish, this book
describes the coming generations in a world of justice and peace with a vision
of a Jewish state under the protection of the alliance of peoples, built “on
foundations and principles of Sinai.” He died in Wołkowysk.

He was born in Rovno, Volhynia
district, Ukraine, into a well-off family.
He was orphaned early on his father’s side. He received both a Jewish and a general education,
graduating from a Polish senior high school.
He graduated from Warsaw University in 1933 with a doctoral degree in
law. From 1928 until his death, he was a
contributor to the economics and statistical bureau at Cebeka (Central
Education Committee) in Warsaw and placed work in: Dos virtshaftlekhe lebn (The economic life) and Folkshilf (People’s assistance), among
others in Warsaw and Vilna. He was
author of a monograph on Rovno in Polish (Warsaw, 1934). He died in Warsaw.

He was born in Kobrin (Kobrun), near
Brisk (Brest), Lithuania. His father,
Mortkhe-Yehude-Leyb Zalkind, was a prominent, well-cultivated merchant who drew
his pedigree from the Baal Shem Tov and from Rabbi Mendele Don Yeḥia (rabbi in Drise [Verkhnedvinsk])
who came from a prominent Jewish family in Portugal. His mother, Khaye-Ester, a
great-granddaughter of the rabbi of Lublin, Rabbi Meshulem-Zalmen Ashkenazi,
descended from generations of celebrated men and rabbis—from Ḥakham-Tsvi (1656-1718)
back to Maharshal (1510-1574), Tosefet-Yom-Tov (1579-1654), and Rashi
(1040-1105). Until his bar-mitzvah,
Yankev-Meyer attended religious primary school, studied for two years at the
Volozhin Yeshiva, gained fame as an utterly brilliant prodigy, while studying
secular subjects with private tutors; later as an external student, he sat for
the examination for the sixth class in high school, and thereafter studied
philosophy, philology, history, literature, and political economy at the
Universities of Berlin, Munich, Geneva, and Berne (from the last of these, he
received his doctor of philosophy degree in 1904), became a great linguist,
knowledgeable in over twenty languages, old and new—he wrote twelve to fourteen
with ease—while all the time devoting considerable energy to the multifaceted
studies of the Talmud and its commentators.
He brought with him from his devout Enlightened, Ḥibat-Tsiyon (Love of Zion) home an ethnic Orthodox
disposition, as already in Munich (Germany) he began campaigning for Zionism
amid the local German Jewish student body, and later in Switzerland founded Zionist
unions, libraries, and kosher student kitchens (as a counterweight to the
influence of the assimilationist, socialist “Russian kitchens”); he was the
founder and captain of the actively struggling, corporatist student union
“Kadima” (Onward!) in Berne, where after the Kishenev pogrom of 1903 he
organized an enthusiastic self-defense group, and it studied shooting and
military marching. From there he moved
to England where he married and became a rabbi in the small Jewish congregation
of Cardiff in South Wales. For a time
everything was proceeding well in Zalkind’s life, but then he began to quarrel
with his community, moved to London where he founded a Zionist “Aḥuza” (estate) with
seventy members, left for Israel in 1913 as its representative, and there
established the colony of Karkur, not far from Pardes Ḥanna. Just as
the Aḥuza members
(most of them laborers) were unable to simply move to Israel immediately (they
initially began settling in the colony in 1921), so Zalkind returned to England
and set off for Glasgow (Scotland) in 1915 to study agronomy, so that he would
be able properly to administer the colonization of Karkur, when the time would
come. In 1916, however, the course of
Zalkind’s life took a turn in a new direction, when he became an opponent of
war, returned once again to London where he conducted an anti-militarist
campaign, and when Herbert Samuel, Home Secretary in the British Government,
reached an agreement with the Russian (Tsarist) government—according to which
unnaturalized Russian Jews in England had to either join the English army or
return to Russia and be recruited there to fight in the war—Zalkind launched a
fierce fight against this. For the goals
of the anti-war campaign, he established in London at the time the “Defense
Committee,” published and edited himself Di
idishe shtime (The Jewish voice)—of which thirteen weekly and thirty-six
daily numbers appeared, in close association with A. Vevyorke and Dr. A.
Margolin—a national-radical, anti-militaristic newspaper, was arrested and
spent a short time in prison for anti-war agitation, left the Zionist party and
launched an anti-Zionist campaign, and fought also against Zhabotinsky’s plans
of a Jewish Legion. He later arrived
intellectually at anarcho-communism and, with help from several London
anarchists, in 1920 he revived the old anarchist periodical Der arbayter fraynd (The workers’
friend)—published over the course of three years monthly in 1920, biweekly in
1921, weekly and again biweekly in 1922 and 1923—which he edited and
practically wrote by himself alone, both under his own name and using such
pseudonyms as: Dr. Y. M. Salinfante, Pyer Romus, Y. M. Mivne Hekhala, B. Mayer,
S. Zalkin, Osip S., M. Volodin, Eygen Haynrikh Shmit, M. Gracchus, and the
like. Other contributors to the newspaper
included: Rudolf Rocker, Dr. Mikhl Kohen, Shloyme Ben-Dovid, Sh. Linder, V.
Rubtshinski, Volin, and M. L. Vitkop.
Zalkind also edited and practically wrote the entirety of the newspaper
(1922) Der yunger dor (The young
generation). He became a fiery
anarchist, and aside from the hundreds of newspaper articles he wrote, he also
translated a series of pamphlets and books by famous anarchist authors, while
at the same time remaining a firmly religious Jew and an eminent scholar in his
daily life. In his first years as an
anarchist, he devoted a great deal of work on a Yiddish translation of the
Talmud; he fought hard against the Zionist movement, while at the same time
writing (in Der arbayter fraynd)
about Vladimir Zhabotinsky as the “Jewish Garibaldi” (he would later take a
position close to Zhabotinsky’s Revisionism); he separated himself from
Zionism, while remaining a firm adherent of the construction of the land of
Israel. Most striking in Zalkind’s
contradictory ideas was the linkage between his anarchism and his Talmudic
ethic, from which he never budged so much as a hair, neither in theory nor in
practice. An authentic “free society”
would, in his view, be a “Talmudic society”—namely, a society in which the
Talmudic ethic would lie at the foundation of its political philosophy and at
the base of its legislation. He believed
that from the Talmud one could today extract living sources, and this was the
thrust of his vast, nearly lifelong work of rendering the Talmud into Yiddish. From 1921 he was living in Harrogate (a spa
near Leeds) where his wife ran a millinery shop. Zalkind was never able to earn enough to support
himself and his family. In 1930 on a
visit to the United States, where he was close to his anarchist friends in
various states, he appeared in public with anarchist speakers. He then traveled on to Israel where he was to
spend his last, painful years, went into seclusion, and took part in no
community activities at all; for only a few acquaintances would he (with
revolutionary pathos) speak about the need to create in Israel a stateless
community based on anarchist principles.
He also, however, in his last years did not cease studying or writing;
he was engaged in his immense Talmudic work (this time in Hebrew)—Hamishna vehatosefta (The Mishnah and
the Tosefta), the first part of which appeared only after his death. He died in poverty and desolation in Haifa
(although in a letter of April 1937 sent to his Kobrin native place group in
New York, he gave his return address as: 15 Yavne St., Tel Aviv).

The first things he wrote for
publication appeared in 1900 in Hatsfira
(The siren) and Drohobitsher tsayung
(Drogobych newspaper), and from that point in time he wrote hundreds of
articles, treatises, feature pieces, impressions, stories, poems, and dramatic
works in a variety of newspapers and journals in Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian,
German, English, French, and Judeo-Español.
In Hebrew he wrote a series of children’s plays which were staged in
Jewish schools and Talmud Torahs in various countries; among them the following
appeared in separate editions: Haaniyim
(The poor) (Warsaw, 1903), 23 pp.; Yetsiat
mitsraim (The exodus from Egypt) (London, 1907), 32 pp.; Atselim (Lazy ones) (London, 1907); David (David) (Warsaw, 1907), 32 pp.; Harokhel hakatan (The little peddler)
(Warsaw-Cracow, 1907), 27 pp.; Hashoshana
halevana (The white rose) (Warsaw, 1907), 9 pp.; Boshtim (Disgraces) (Leipzig, 1922). He translated into Yiddish: M. L. Lilienblum,
Finf momentn in lebn fun moyshe rabeynu
(Five moments in the life of Moses, our teacher) (Zurich, 1906; another
translation by Hilel Malakhovski appeared in New York in 1909); Professor A.
Varburg, Di tsukunft fun erets-yisroel
(The future of the land of Israel) (London, 1907), 37 pp.; R. Rocker, Anarkhizm un organizatsye (Anarchism and
Organization [original: Anarchismus und
Organisation]) (London, 1922), 48 pp.; George Barrett (George Powell Ballard), Taynes
kegn anarkhizm (Objections to anarchism) (London, 1922), 40 pp.; Sébastien
Faure, Verter fun a dertsier (Words
from an educator) (Buenos Aires, 1924), 96 pp.; H. G. Wells, Dr maros inzel (The Island of Dr.
Moreau), a supplement to Arbayter fraynd. Zalkind’s original works include: Die Peschitta zu Schir-haschirim
(Aramaic translation of the Song of Songs) (Leiden, 1905), 42 pp.; Di idishe kolonyes in erets yisroel, zeyer
eksistents un progres (The Jewish colonies in the land of Israel, their
existence and progress) (London, 1914); Vayomer
yaakov (And Jacob spoke), annotations and commentaries on Tanakh and Talmud
(London, 1918), 196 pp.; Di geshikhte fun
di idishe bukhdrukerayen (The history of Yiddish book publishers), a
scholarly work of great range and value, only the first three chapters appeared
in print in the monthly Renesans
(Renaissance) (London, 1920). Among his
unpublished works: a collection of original legends in Hebrew, Bereshit (In the beginning); a longer
historical treatment of the Gele late
(Yellow patch); a Hebrew translation of Molière’s Der karger (The miser [original: L’avare]); a siddur (prayer book) with historical and grammatical
notes and with an introduction on the history of the siddur; an anthology of
political legends; a major work entitled Di
filosofye fun anarkhizm (The philosophy of anarchism); a work in German
entitled Die Irrwege der jüdischen
Geshichte (Wrong turns taken in Jewish history); a major work on the
history of the church censor and the Inquisition in Jewish religious texts—on
the basis of a manuscript (found in the Parisian state library and variants
also in Rome and Bologna) of an old censor, a Safed Jew, a student of the Ari,
later a convert who pointed out the places that had to be erased in censored
texts (this manuscript was unknown to earlier historians of the censorate—A.
Berliner and V. Papir). Zalkind also
edited Milon zhargoni-ivri
(Yiddish-Hebrew dictionary) by A. L. Bisko (London, 1920).

Zalkind’s most important
accomplishment was his starting work on a translation of the Talmud into
Yiddish, of which the first four tractates in the order of Zeraim (Seeds [agriculture])
appeared in print. The first volume, Berakhot (Blessings), had the general
title on frontispiece: Babylonian Talmud—the Talmud in Yiddish, Gemara
Publishers, “translated and explained by Dr. Yankev-Meyer Zalkind, published by
B. Vaynberg (London, 1922),” 228 pp. in folio.
The text consists of the Mishna, the Gemara, and commentary. Under “In lieu of a preface” to Berakhot, the “translator and editor” wrote,
inter alia: “With respect to the
translation we wish to note that it is highly literal…, even when the style has
to suffer on occasion…. As concerns the
commentary we have made every effort to create something that is worth any
price, usable for the beginner as well as for the scholar.” The commentary “is built, in the main, on the
explanations of Rashi, Tosafot, Maharsha, Rabenu Yona, and other ‘commentaries
on the Talmud,’” but in certain places “we have found it appropriate to offer
our own opinion as well.” Both the translation
and the commentary were written (according to Shmuel Niger) “in a delightful
language,” which in subsequent volumes became “richer and more refined.” A handful of Germanisms which crop up here
and there (dizer ‘this’; entfernt ‘remote’; entfernung ‘removal’; and a few others) apparently had for the
author a certain stylistic justification, in any event not hindering in the
least the great joy that one has reading (or studying) Zalkind’s Talmud in
Yiddish. The second volume, tractate Peah (Corner), carried on its
frontispiece the title: “Talmud in Yiddish, Talmud Publishers, London, 1928”
(86 pp. in folio). This second tractate,
just like the subsequent tractates in this translation, was taken from the
Jerusalem Talmud; the Babylonia Talmud has only Berakhot, the Gemara to the first Mishna of the order Zeraim, and
the remaining nine Gemaras of the order can only be found in the Jerusalem
Talmud. It includes the original Hebrew
text, next to the Yiddish translation, and with pointing. In his preface to the second volume, Zalkind
remarked that his commentary was built on the commentaries of Rambam and R.
Samson of Sens, as well as Bartenuro, Pnei Moshe, Tosafot-Yom-Tov, and later
commentators, as well as his own opinions here and there. The third volume on tractate Demai (Uncertainty)—“Talmud in Yiddish,
Talmud Publishers, London, 1929” (126 pp. in folio)—also carries the original
Hebrew text of the Gemara with pointing.
According to Z. R. (Zalmen Reyzen), in Yivo-bleter (Pages from YIVO) 13, Zalkind was planning to bring out
a fourth volume, on tractate Kilayim
(Mixture), but when and where he does not say.
Zalkind’s last work was his no less immense project, Hamishna vehatosefta: “Precise wording
with extensive commentary by Yaakov Meir Zalkind,” the first volume of which—on
tractate Berakhot—was published
posthumously in Haifa in 1939 (348 pp.).

Thursday, 28 July 2016

He was a teacher of painting and
drawing in Jewish schools in Vilna. In
the years between the two world wars, he frequently published articles on issues
concerning painting and art in the Vilna Yiddish newspapers. With the outbreak of WWII (September 1939), he
escaped from Vilna to Grodno, and from there he was evacuated to Soviet Russia,
where he died soon after arriving.

He hailed from a town in Grodno
district. He lived in Odessa and played
an important role in the rise of the Russian Yiddish press. After 1905 he ran a publishing house in
Odessa, which published pro-Zionist pamphlets, some of which he wrote
himself. He published current events
articles in Fraynd (Friend) in St.
Petersburg and in subsequent years in Haynt
(Today) in Warsaw. He was the publisher,
1917-1918, of Petrograder togblat
(Petrograd daily newspaper). From the
1920s he was living in Israel. He died
in Givat Betar.

He was born in Brisk (Brest),
Lithuania, into the family of a poor shoemaker.
At age six he was orphaned on his father’s side. He studied in religious primary school and on
his own acquired secular knowledge. In
his youth he became a tailor, and he was active in the trade union movement and
in the Bund. He was arrested by the
Tsarist authorities and exiled to Siberia for three years. In 1911 he came to New York and until 1919
worked in a sweatshop, while at the same time remaining active in the trade union
and socialist movement. In the Workmen’s
Circle he was a member of the education committee and a fighter on behalf of
secular Jewish schools. After 1920 he
was one of the most active leaders in the Jewish section of the Communist Party
in America. He was cofounder and general
secretary of the International Workers’ Order (IWO), of the newspaper Frayhayt (Freedom), and of a series of
Yiddish periodical publications of the leftist movement. He was one of the initiators of the Jewish
Culture Congress in Paris (1937). On
several occasions he visited European countries, including the Soviet
Union. He published articles (some under
the pseudonym “Zara”) in: Frayhayt, Morgn-frayhayt (Morning freedom), Hamer (Hammer), Di naye velt (The new world), Proletarishe
dertsiung (Proletarian education), Shul-almanakh
(School almanac), Yidishe kultur
(Jewish culture), and Eynikeyt
(Unity)—in New York; Kultur (Culture)
in Chicago; and in other Jewish Communist publications in various lands. He was the author of the book: Tsu der geshikhte fun der fraternaler
bavegung (Toward the history of the fraternal movement) (New York, 1936),
287 pp. He also published a significant
number of pamphlets of a political polemical character with Communist leanings,
such as: Barikht tsu der ershter konvents
fun internatsyonaln arbeter ordn (Report to the first convention of the
International Workers’ Order) (New York, 1931), 28 pp.; Di shul far ayer kind (The school for your child) (New York, 1935),
40 pp.; Ordn fun proletarishn fraternalism
(Order of proletarian fraternalism) (New York, 1938), 23 pp.; Der ordn in yidishn lebn (The Order in
Jewish life) (New York, 1938), 63 pp.; Der
ordn in der itstiker epokhe (The Order in the contemporary epoch) (New
York, 1941), 31 pp.; Farrat in arbeter
ring (Treason in Workmen’s Circle) (New York, 1942), 23 pp.; A shand un a veytog (A shame and a pain)
(New York, 1942), 23 pp.; 17 yor in dinst
fun folks-ordn (Seventeen years in service to the people’s order) (New
York, 1947), 63 pp.; Unter dem zeydenem
farhang fun amerikaner yidishn kongres (Under the silk curtain of the
American Jewish Congress) (New York, 1949), 32 pp. He died in St. Louis, Missouri.

She was born in Dvinsk (Daugavpils), Latvia.
She received a Jewish and a secular education. She later became a bookkeeper. After the Germans under Hitler occupied
Latvia in 1941, she was confined in the Dvinsk and the Riga ghettos, from which
she was deported in 1944 to the Stutthof death camp. By a fortunate turn of events, she was sent
from there to work in a factory in Thorn (Toruń), where she survived until
liberation in 1945. She remained in
Germany until 1947 and then moved to Canada.
From 1953 to 1957, she lived in Israel.
In 1946 she began writing her memoirs from the ghetto years, which
appeared in book form under the title Heftling
numer 94771, iberlebenishn in daytshe lagern (Prisoner number 94771,
experiences in German camps) (Montreal, 1949), 175 pp., with an introduction by
Melekh Ravitsh. Aside from historical
documentation, this book also has a literary value thanks to the unmediated descriptions
full of numerous impressions of the tragic events, and—as noted by M. Ravitsh—it
is a voice in the Jewish chorus that accuses the world for the suffering of the
Jewish people. She was last living in
Mexico City.

She was born in Vilna, into a
well-to-do family. For many years she
was a teacher of pedagogy in a Hebrew teachers’ seminary in Vilna and ran her
own “Gan Yeladim” (nursery school). She
published articles on psychological pedagogical issues in such journals and anthologies
as: Dos shutsloze kind (The
unprotected child) (Vilna) and Dos
elendste kind (The most afflicted child) (Warsaw, 1927); Velt-shpign (World mirror) (Warsaw,
1927-1939); and Di tsayt (The times)
(Vilna). In book form, she published: Miyomana shel ganenet (From the diary of
a kindergarten teacher) (Vilna, 1927), 196 pp.
Subsequent biographical details remain unknown.

He was born in Apt, (Opatów), Kielce
district, Poland, into a Hassidic merchant family. He studied in religious elementary school and
yeshiva. Until WWII he worked as a
businessman in Lodz. When the Germans
occupied Poland, he left for Russia. He
returned to Poland in 1946. He wrote
poetry for Nayer folksblat (New
people’s newspaper) in Lodz (1931). He
later contributed to: Folkstsaytung
(People’s newspaper) and Literarishe
bleter (literary leaves) in Warsaw.
After the war he published poems and articles in: Dos naye lebn (The new life), Yidishe
shriftn (Jewish writings), and Folksshtime
(Voice of the people)—all in Warsaw. In
book form: In zunike teg (On sunny
days), poetry (Warsaw, 1954), 80 pp.

Wednesday, 27 July 2016

He was born in Zamość,
Poland. He studied in religious
elementary school, and worked as a tailor.
At first, he was part of the Youth Bund, later active in the Communist
Party. He spent time in prisons in
Poland and France where he had moved in 1929.
He was dispatched to Soviet Russia in 1933, and there he was arrested in
1937 for “espionage” and sentenced to ten years of exile in a Siberian
camp. In 1947 he was freed and in 1956
rehabilitated. From 1959 he was in Paris,
and later he was in Israel. His books
include: Un men hot mikh rehabilitirṭ,
iberlebungen fun a yidishn komunist in di stalinishe tfises un lagern (And
they rehabilitated me, experiences of a Jewish Communist in Stalinist prisons
and camps) (Tel Aviv: Yisroel-bukh, 1970), 315 pp., which was translated into
Hebrew and French [and German, English, and Russian—JAF]; Yoysef epshteyn (Kolonel zshil), der heroisher yidisher frayheyts-kemfer
(Joseph Epsztejn [Colonel Gille], the heroic Jewish freedom fighter) (Paris,
1980), 71 pp.; Di groyse enderung in
yidishn lebn in frankraykh, fun der zeks-togiker milkhome biz 1980 (The
great change in Jewish life in France, from the Six Day War to 1980) (Tel Aviv:
Yisroel-bukh, 1980), 157 pp.; Bela
shapiro, di populere froyen-geshtalt (Bela Shapiro, the popular image of
women) (Paris, 1983), 71 pp.

He was born in a town in Kielce
district, Poland, into a poor family. He
studied in religious elementary school, yeshivas, and later through self-study
acquired secular knowledge. For a time
he was in preparatory training for work on a kibbutz, and later he lived in
Warsaw and maintained himself through unskilled labor. He was active among Jewish anarchists. He published a volume of poems entitled Memento mori (Remember you shall die),
with a foreword by the author (Warsaw, 1938), 146 pp. Aside from poetry written in the motifs of
love, pain, and suffering, this book included a cycle entitled “Khalutsim”
(Pioneers) in which the author expressed the yearnings of youth in Poland who
were prepared to become pioneers in Israel.
Subsequent information about him remains unknown.

He
was born in Lagov (Łagów), Poland. From 1913 he was living in Toronto. He received a Jewish and a general
education. In his youth he was active among
the left Labor Zionists, and from 1926 he was playing a leading role in the
Communist movement which he abandoned in 1956.
Over the years 1943-1955, he was a member of the Ontario
Legislature. He began writing on youth
issues and community matters in the monthly periodical that he edited, Unzer yugend (Our youth) in Toronto
(1919), as well as in other publications of the left Labor Zionists and later
in the Communist periodicals: Der kamf
(The struggle), Der veg (The path),
and Vokhnblat (Weekly newspaper)—in Toronto;
Morgn-tsaytung (Morning newspaper) in
New York; and elsewhere. He also
contributed to: Keneder odler (Canadian
eagle) in Montreal under the pen name Yoysef-Borekh; and Idisher zhurnal (Jewish journal) in Winnipeg, in which he published
stories and ran a column “Vokh-ayn un vokh-oys” (Week in and week out).

He was born in Raseyn (Raseiniai), Lithuania,
and studied in religious elementary schools and yeshivas. He later turned to secular subjects and
joined the revolutionary movement of the Russian Populists. In 1881 he set out for the United
States. He spent two years in London,
where he was active in Jewish labor groups.
In 1883 he arrived in New York.
Together with Dovid Edelshtat and others, he founded the anarchist organ
Di varhayt (The truth), in which he
published his translation of chapters from Karl Marx’s Kapital. Years later he
joined the Labor Zionist party. He
settled in Philadelphia where he contributed for a time to the local editions
of New York’s Morgn-tsaytung (Morning
newspaper). He died in Philadelphia.

He was born in Zastavye, near Kamenets-Litovsk,
Byelorussia. Until age eleven he studied
with his father, a teacher of Talmud, and later he attended a Talmud Torah and
yeshivas in Brisk (Brest) and Slobodka.
For a time he studied in the towns around Minsk and Vilna, where he gave
Hebrew lessons and taught children in the synagogue study chambers. In 1915, at the time of the expulsion of
Russian Jews from the front lines, he was expelled from his town, stayed for a
short time in Molodetshne, and then in 1916 he turned up in Yaroslav, by the
Volga River, where he worked in a leather factory. After the outbreak of revolution in 1917, he volunteered
to join the Russian army and left for the front. He spent some time in a German prisoner-of-war
camp in Czersk. When he returned home at
the end of 1918, he founded the first Jewish public school in Zastavye, then moved
to Brest-Litovsk, and from there in 1926 he moved on to Canada. From 1927 on, he worked as a Yiddish teacher
in the Peretz School in Winnipeg. He began
his writing activities with a series of descriptions of his voyage to Canada in
Dos idishe vort (The Jewish word) in
Winnipeg (1926), and from that point on he published stories, books, tales for children,
and dramatic works in: Dos naye vort
(The new word) in Winnipeg; Der khaver
(The comrade) in Vilna; and Der tog
(The day), Kinder-zhurnal (Children’s
magazine), and Kinder tsaytung
(Children’s newspaper) in New York; among others. His books include: Af fremder erd, bletlekh fun a lebn (On foreign soil, pages from a
life) (Winnipeg, 1945), 524 pp. (awarded a prize from YIVO in 1943 while in manuscript)—a
book that depicts in a quiet tone and careful language the types and figures of
the massacred Jewish towns in Poland and Lithuania; Di letste fun a dor, heymishe geshtaltn (The last of a generation,
familiar images), stories (Winnipeg, 1952], 339 pp.—descriptions of familiar
figures from the past. He also
published: the children’s plays, Der
oyfshtand fun di khashmenoim (The uprising of the Hasmoneans) and Der eybiker nes fun a krigl boymel (The eternal
miracle of a little jug of oil), performed in Jewish schools in America and
Canada; and Unzer kultur hemshekh
(Our culture continued) (Winnipeg, 1946), 221 pp.—a collection of essays and
articles on Yiddish writers, “a volume with a pedagogical mission,” written
with “conviction and zeal” (according to Dr. A. Mukdoni). He died in Winnipeg.

He was born in Warsaw, Poland, into
a Hassidic merchant family. He studied
in religious primary school, at the Gerer Yeshiva, and with private tutors,
later becoming a businessman. He was an
activist in Orthodox education. He
authored a number of works on Torah, such as: Yalkut yitsḥak (Yitsḥak’s satchel) (Warsaw,
1895), 296 pp.; Likute yitsḥak
(Gleanings of Yitsḥak)
(Warsaw, 1913), 96 pp.; and others. He
was a contributor to Nohkem-Leyb Vayngot’s Dos
yidishe vort (The Jewish word) in Warsaw (1916), where, aside from articles
on pedagogical topics, he published weekly tales of Hassidic rebbes. At the time of the German occupation of
Poland during WWI (1915-1918), he was a cofounder of the first religious
schools in Warsaw and wrote a number of textbooks for them, such as: the reader
Sefer shaare yitsḥak, leman tinokot
shel bet raban (The gates of Yitsḥak,
for the sake of school children) (Warsaw)—“This book is to teach Jewish
children how to conduct themselves the entire day from rising in the morning
until going to sleep at night, on the Sabbath, New Year, and holidays. It brings together holy words of the Sages. This will involve an implantation, like fire
in the hearts of the sacred Jewish children, of an eagerness with joy and love
to serve the Lord with all of one’s heart, and this will remain with them in
their hearts forever” (from the introduction by the author); Minḥat yitsḥak velikute yitsḥak
(Offering of Yitsḥak and
gleanings of Yitsḥak), with a preface in Hebrew and an approbation from the
Gerer rebbe (Warsaw, 1915), part 1, 130 pp., part 2, 84 pp., and an appendix comprised
of a short dictionary of words of Hebrew and Aramaic origin translated into
Yiddish. This last book was written in
dialogue format between a rabbi and his pupil and was reissued in many editions
and translated into Hebrew (used as well in Agudah schools in Israel). A photographed edition of the Yiddish text,
published in New York in 1953, was used in girls’ schools of the Beys-Yankev
sort and other religious schools in the United States. He died in Warsaw.

He was born in Vilna. His father was a gravedigger. Until age twelve he studied in religious
elementary school, later becoming a laborer.
In 1900 he moved to the United States.
He was the founder of the first Jewish butchers’ union in New York, as
well as other trade unions. He lived for
many years in Paterson, New Jersey. He
debuted in print with a story about workers’ life in the weekly Tsayt-gayst (Spirit of the times) (New
York, 1905). From that point, he published
stories and sketches concerning the lives of Jewish laborers in: Forverts (Forward), Varhayt (Truth), Di tsayt
(The times), Fraye arbeter shtime
(Free voice of labor), and Der tog
(The day)—in New York. In book form: Der barber, oder broyt far di kinder
(The barber, or bread for the children), a drama in three scenes (New York, 1911),
16 pp. He was living in Hightstown, New
Jersey.

He was born in Meytshet (Molchad),
Slonim district, Byelorussia. His
father, Noyekh Meytsheter, was a cantor in a number of Jewish cities, among
them Lide, Vilna district, where he had become famous and from which he acquired
the name “Reb Noyekh Lider.” When he was
two years of age, Elyohu’s parent brought him to Kalish (Kalisz), Poland, where
his father was to serve as the city’s cantor.
He initially studied at a religious primary school, from age nine with
the Kalish rabbi, R. Shimshen Orenshteyn, and secular subject matter with the
“best teachers in the municipal government’s high school.” Early on he demonstrated musical talent, and
he was taught to play the fiddle. At age
eighteen, he sat for the examinations for the sixth class in high school, and
afterward he left (1905) for Milan, Italy, where he spent five months studying
voice with Professor Augusto Broggi; he later studied for a short time in
Vienna, Austria, with Professor Frank, and in 1906 he arrived at the Kaiser’s
Music Academy in Berlin, later moving to the Stern Conservatory, from which he
graduated with a silver medal in 1909.
That same year (1909), he became the chief cantor of the Sinai Synagogue
in Warsaw. At that time he began writing
about music and the cantorial art in the Hebrew-language Hatsfira (The siren)—“Sirtutim muzikalim” (Musical sketches) and
other pieces under the pen name “Even”—and in Yiddish for Shoyel Hokhberg’s Unzer lebn (Our life)—both in
Warsaw. In 1913 he moved to
Rostov-on-Don, where he served as cantor in the Great Synagogue, voice teacher
in the local state conservatory (1914-1917), and tenor in the opera
(1918-1921). He wrote on music for the
Russian Jewish Razsviet (Dawn) in St.
Petersburg and for the Russian-language Priazovskii
krai (Azov region) in Rostov. In
1922 he left Russia, worked for a specified amount of time as a cantor in the
reform synagogue Taharat Hakodesh in Vilna, served as cantor in Bialystok and
Lodz as well, wrote on music and cantorial work for Vilner tog (Vilna day) and Dos
naye lebn (The new life) in Bialystok, and compiled his work Manginot yisrael (Melodies of Israel), a
collection of songs and stock tunes. In
1925 he arrived to serve as cantor at the Central Synagogue in Liverpool,
England, wrote for Der idisher ekspress
(The Jewish express) in London, and published his book Di muzik in 19tn yorhundert, historish-byografisher iberblik (Music
in the nineteenth century, historical-biographical survey) (London, 1925), 62
pp.—short biographical and critical essays on forty-five composers. In 1926 he moved to the United States, served
for a short time as cantor in a number of synagogues in New York, and then
later moved to Detroit, Michigan, where he was cantor as Temple Shaarey Zedek
from 1926 to 1932; later still, he served as cantor again in New York, as well
as in other cities in America. He spent
his last five year as cantor in Congregation Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. He published Finf folkstimlekhe lider far gezang un pyano
(Five popular songs for voice and piano) (New York, 1926), 4 pp.—music and
lyrics by Z. Segalovitsh, Avrom Reyzen, Moris Rozenfeld, and M. Goldman; and he
published in Morgn-zhurnal (Morning
journal) in New York a series of biographical articles on cantors and
conductors which was later included in his book Kultur-treger fun der yidisher liturgye, historish-byografisher
iberblik iber khazones, khazonim un dirizhorn (Culture bearer of Jewish
liturgy, historical-biographical survey of the cantorial art, cantors, and
conductors) (Detroit, Michigan, 1930), 351 pp. and 8 pp., with a preface by the
author, a biographical dictionary of cantors—among them, biographies of his father,
his brothers who were cantors, and his own autobiography. He also compiled a cantor’s prayer book,
entitled Tefilat noaḥ
veavodat eliyahu
(The prayer of Noah and the service of Eliyahu), his father’s and his own liturgical
compositions and recitatives. In the jubilee
volume of Dos naye lebn (Bialystok)
in 1929, he published “Khazonim un khazones bay yidn” (Cantors and the
cantorial art among Jews), and in Shul un
khazonim velt (The world of synagogue and cantors) (Warsaw, 1938) he
contributed a series of articles entitled “Mayne zikhroynes” (My memoirs). He was also the founder and president
(1928-1932) of the cantors’ society of the Midwest. He died in Pittsburgh.

Tuesday, 26 July 2016

He was born in Vilna,
Lithuania. He received a thorough Jewish
education and thereafter attended a Russian senior high school. From late 1883 until the autumn of 1885, he
lived in Paris where he was an early auditor at the Sorbonne and at the same
time was engaged in a variety of trades, for a time as well working in a
publishing house. In those years, he
began to write poetry in Russian and Hebrew.
He debuted in print with “A Letter from Paris,” in which he described
the sad condition of Jewish immigrants in Paris and the work of Alliance
Israélite, for the Russian monthly Evreiskoe
obozrenie (Jewish review) in St. Petersburg (March 1884)—in which he also
published under such pen names as L. Zolotkovich and Ben-Zev. At the beginning of 1886, he returned to
Russia, worked for a time on the editorial board of Hayom (Today) in St. Petersburg (writing under the pen name “Zaken
gadol” or big elder), and then late that year again left Russia and headed for
London, where he purchased the small publishing house from which he produced Der arbayter fraynd (The workers’
friend), became a friend of B. Feygenboym who enlisted him in the Jewish labor
movement, and together with Feygenboym wrote Di sotsyalistishe hagode shel peysekh (The socialist Passover Hagada)
(London: Berner Street Club, 1888). That
same year he emigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago. He was at first active in the Jewish
socialist movement and was well-known as a political speaker and lecturer. After graduating from university with a
doctoral degree, he practiced as a lawyer and also assumed the post of
prosecutor, simultaneously turning his attention to writing, and with his
friend and fellow townsman Perets Vyernik, he began to publish various
periodicals in Hebrew and Yiddish. He
was one of the pioneers in the Yiddish (mainly, conservative) press in
America. In 1911 he moved to New York,
was active in the Labor Zionist party, later moved over to general Zionism, and
was one of the founders of the organ Knights
of Zion in Chicago in 1898.

Zolotkof began writing when he was
still a youth, producing Hebrew poetry for Hamelits
(The advocate) and Hatsfira (The
siren). He debuted in Yiddish (under the
pseudonym “Yener” or “that one”) with “A vig lid fun an arbayter froy” (A lullaby
for a worker’s wife) in Arbayter fraynd
in London (September 1886); and thereafter he published features, poetry, and
impressions of laboring life in the same serial. He would later contribute to virtually the
entirety of the Yiddish press in America. He published current events articles, feature
pieces, stories, poems, images, and newspaper novels (his own and translations
from French) in: Nyu yorker yudishe
folkstsaytung (New York Jewish people’s newspaper) (1886-1889), Tsukunft (Future), Morgn zhurnal (Morning journal), Yidishes tageblat (Jewish daily newspaper), Di yudishe gazeten (The Jewish gazette), and Dos idishe folk (The Jewish people)—in New York; and Der idisher kuryer (The Jewish courier),
Der toglikher yudisher kol (The daily
Jewish voice), and Keren haor (The
ray of light)—in Chicago. In Morgn zhurnal in which he placed in 1924
his major work, “Der mensh un di velt” (Man and the world), a popular treatise
on the principal facts of civilization in connection with Jewish history, he
also was in charge (under the name Dr. Klorman) of a daily column of answers
and advice for readers. At various
times, he served as editor of: the Hebrew monthly Keren haor (Chicago, 1889); Der
idisher kuryer (Chicago, from 1887, with M. Melamed); Yidishes tageblat (Chicago edition, four numbers each week; Di yudishe gazeten (New York); Dos idishe folk (New York, 1909); and
the daily newspaper Der toglikher
yudisher kol (Chicago). He was the
author (under the pen name Ben-Zev) of the pamphlet Der tsvek fun der tsien bevegung (The goal of the Zion movement), “a
brief explanation in questions and answers” (Chicago, 1901), 36 pp. He also wrote the following books: Blut shvaygṭ nit, a mayse fun yidishe
tsores in di regirungs tsayṭ fun aleksander III (Blood will not be silent,
a story of Jewish troubles in the era of the government of Alexander III)
(Chicago, 1902), 66 pp.; Der biterer tropen,
a komedye in dray akten (The bitter drop [of alcohol], a comedy in three
acts) (New York, 1924), 61 pp.; Mayn
eytse, entfers af problemen velkhe entshtehen in dem yidishn lebn in amerike
(My advice, answers to issues that arise in Jewish life in America) (New York,
1931), 352 pp.; an autobiographical novel, From
Vilna to Hollywood (New York, 1932), 234 pp. (initially published in Yiddish
in Morgn-zhurnal). From his novels which he published over the
course of many years in the press, the following were published in book form: Tsvishn libe un milyonen, oder durkh fayer
un ayzerne keytn (Between love and millions, or through fire and iron
chains) (New York, 1899), 414 pp.; Di
shvartse hand oder der goyel hadam (The black hand or the avenger of blood)
(written under the pen name L. Zolotarofski) (Brooklyn, 1901), 428 pp.; Di velt-banditn (The world bandits) (New
York, 1919), 476 pp. He translated Adolf
Friedemann’s Teodor hertsels lebn
(The life of Theodor Herzl [original: Das
Leben Theodor Herzls]) (New York, 1915), 141 pp., with his own
preface. His two plays were performed in
the Yiddish theater in America. In the
collection Der yidish-amerikaner redner
(The Jewish American speaker) (New York, 1908), edited by G. Zelikovitsh, a
number of pieces by him (under the pen name Ben-Zev) were published which
reflect Jewish life in America at that time. He also published in Russian under such
pseudonyms as Z. Zolotkovich. He died in
Long Island, New York.

He was born in Elizavetgrad, southern
Russia, now in Ukraine. In 1879 his
father, a wool maker, died, and he was raised by an aunt on his mother’s side
in Belaya Tserkov, Kiev district, in assimilated surroundings. He knew nothing of Jewishness and studied
only Russian and German. In his youth he
set out to roam through the bigger cities of Ukraine, worked in a library in
Elizavetgrad, and was a newspaper seller along the Kharkov-Nikolaev train
line. In 1890 he emigrated to the United
States and looked up an older brother in Fall River, Massachusetts, who from
time to time would act in Yiddish theater with an amateur group. He worked there as a laborer in a textile
factory and at the same time acted in the amateur troupe with his brother. He set himself to learning English and
Yiddish, and he acquainted himself with the novels of Shomer and Tanenboym as
well as with Yiddish theatrical works that were popular at the time. He later worked as a peddler, a shoe-shiner, a
newspaper seller, and an insurance agent, while all the time playing with the
amateur troupe in Providence, Boston, and New Haven. In 1893 he became a professional Yiddish
actor and traveled through various cities in the United States. For want of repertoire, he began to translate
bit by bit theatrical poems and shorter pieces for the stage (many of these
poems were published in a separate volume in Montreal in 1897). He composed his first play in 1895: Der farfaser (The author), “a drama in
four acts”; in 1897 he wrote the theatrical work, Der yudisher volentir (The Jewish volunteer), and in 1899 Der yudisher martirer, oder der yeshive
bokher (The Jewish martyr, or the yeshiva lad). After this, over the course of a half-century,
he provided the Yiddish theater with more than one hundred plays of the
well-known Lateiner-Hurwitz sort. Many
of his plays had great box office success, and such actors as the following
played in them on stage: Yankev (Jacob) Adler, Dovid Kesler, Boris Tomashevsky,
Ludvig Zats, Morris Moshkevits, Kenny Liptsin, and Berta Kalish. In the Yiddish theatrical world, Zolotarevski
was considered “king of the melodrama.”
His plays circulated among the Yiddish acting troupes in manuscript
form, with only a few of them appearing in print: Di yudishe anna karenina (The Jewish Anna Karenina), a “drama in
four acts” (Lemberg, 1909), 44 pp.; Reb
abali Ashkenazi (Reb Abali Ashkenazi), “a life in four acts” (Lemberg,
1909), 52 pp.; Korten (Playing
cards), one act (New York, 1910), 14 pp.; Di
seyls goyrl (The salesgirl), “drama in four acts” (New York, 1913), 97 pp.;
Der yeshive bokher, oder der yudisher
hamlet (The yeshiva lad, or the Jewish Hamlet), “a play in four acts and
six scenes” (Warsaw, 1914), 56 pp.; Geld,
libe un shande (Money, love, and scandal), “a play in four acts” (Warsaw,
1923), 58 pp.; Di vayse shklafn (The
white slaves), “drama in four acts” (Warsaw, 1926), 48 pp.; Libe un laydnshaft (Love and passion), “a
life in four acts” (Warsaw, 1926), 64 pp.; Di
shtifmuter (The stepmother), “a drama in three acts” (Warsaw, 1928), 52
pp. He died in New York.